Stella di Napoli
Bel canto opera arias
Part of Joyce DiDonato Artist Spotlight
Thursday 25 September 2014 7.30pm, Hall
Joyce DiDonato mezzo-soprano
Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon
Riccardo Minasi conductor
Part of Barbican Presents 2014–15
Programme produced by Harriet Smith; printed by
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Stella di Napoli
Bel canto opera arias
Joyce DiDonato Spotlight
Rossini
Sinfonia from Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra
Pacini
‘Ove t’aggiri, o barbaro’ from Stella di Napoli
Bellini
‘Dopo l’oscuro nembo’ from Adelson e Salvini
Rossini
Ballabile III from Le siège de Corinthe
Carafa
‘L’amica ancor non torna … Oh, di sorte crudel’
from Le nozze di Lammermoor
Rossini
‘Riedi al soglio’ from Zelmira
interval 20 minutes
Bellini
Sinfonia from Norma
Mercadante
‘Se fino al cielo ascendere’ from La vestale
Verdi
Sinfonia from Alzira
Donizetti
‘Par che mi dica ancora’ from Elisabetta al
castello di Kenilworth
Pacini
Final scene from Saffo
Joyce DiDonato mezzo-soprano
Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon
Riccardo Minasi conductor
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Part of Barbican Presents 2014–15
Please note that this reduced programme
does not include descriptive notes for
the pieces being performed. To buy a
full programme for £2, please visit the
Barbican foyers before the concert.
Texts
Giovanni Pacini (1796–1867)
Stella di Napoli
Cabaletta: Ove t’aggiri, o barbaro
Stella
Ove t’aggiri, o barbaro
da me cotanto amato?
Ai ceppi ed al supplizio
vedimi trarre, ingrato!
Ah, vieni, e l’estremo anelito
accogli del mio seno …
ch’io possa dirti almeno:
Moro, crudel, per te!
Where are you, cruel man
I love so dearly?
See me dragged, you ingrate,
in chains to execution!
Ah, come, receive the dying
sigh my breast exhales …
so then at least I can tell you:
I die, cruel man, for you!
Salvadore Cammarano (1801–52)
Salvadore Cammarano (1801–52)
Vincenzo Bellini (1801–35)
Adelson e Salvini
Aria: Dopo l’oscuro nembo
Nelly
Dopo l’oscuro nembo
il ciel sperai sereno,
e al mio tesoro in seno
goder la calma.
Ma così bella speme
qual nuvola sparì,
e al primo suo martir
ritorna l’alma!
Parte, e poi riede il sole
di luce a sfavillar …
e a me non sa tornar
l’amato oggetto!
Once the storm had passed
I had hoped the sky would clear
and that in my beloved’s arms
I would enjoy the calm.
But that beautiful dream
vanished like a cloud
and now my soul is suffering
in torment as before!
The sun is hidden, then reappears
to blaze with light …
yet the one I love
will never return to me!
Andrea Leone Tottola (?–1831)
Andrea Leone Tottola (?–1831)
Recitative and Romanza: L’amica ancor non
torna ... Oh, di sorte crudel
Lucia
L’amica ancor non torna … Ogni momento
un secolo mi par … Turbato, incauto
palpita il cor nel seno …
O reo cimento!
Mille lamenti appressa …
Pene e danni prevede …
O tu, fedele, m’accompagna gradita:
l’amaro duol a sopportar m’aita!
Oh, di sorte crudel
solo ristoro,
a me s’avvi dal Ciel
cara speranza.
Lontana del mio ben
d’affanno io moro,
e vacilla nel sen
la mia costanza.
Vieni, o figlia del Ciel,
Still no sign of my friend … Each moment
seems a century … Agitated, reckless,
my heart pounds in my breast …
O dreadful ordeal!
It heralds a thousand woes …
presages harm and misfortune …
Faithful friend, welcome companion,
help me bear this bitter grief!
Oh, my sole relief
from cruel fate,
beloved Hope,
come down to me from heaven.
I am far from my beloved
and must die of grief,
and in my breast
constancy is wavering.
Come, daughter of heaven,
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Michele Carafa (1787–1872)
Le nozze di Lammermoor
diletta, diletta speme,
consola il cor fedel
che oppresso geme.
Tu fra l’ond’al nocchier
rendi il coraggio,
per te in campo i guerrier
più arditi sono,
a chi gemendo sta
in vil servaggio
di dolce libertà
prometti il dono.
beloved Hope,
comfort a faithful heart
that moans oppressed.
You bring comfort to the sailor
on the stormy sea,
you fire the hearts of warriors
on the field of battle,
to those who suffer
in abject servitude
you promise the gift
of sweet liberty.
Luigi Balocchi (c1766–c1832)
Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868)
Zelmira
Final scene: Riedi al soglio
Zelmira
Riedi al soglio: irata stella
se ne chiuse a te il sentiero,
pura fede, amor sincero
ti richiama al tuo splendor.
Non più affanni in me non sento,
ah felice appieno io sono,
se serbai la vita, il trono
all’amato genitor.
Reclaim your throne: a malignant star
barred your way to it;
now innocent faith, true love
recall you to your high estate.
I am no longer troubled,
I feel only happiness,
since I saved the life, the throne
of my beloved father.
Deh circondatemi
miei cari oggetti!
Voi che nell’anima
soavi affetti,
care delizie
destate ognor.
Oh come and embrace me,
my dear friends!
You who always arouse
sweet affections
and dear delights
in my soul.
Ah, sì … compensino
sì dolci istanti
le pene, i palpiti
ch’ebbi finor.
Ah, yes … may such sweet moments
compensate at last
for the pain and fear
I have suffered until now.
E dopo il nembo,
di pace in grembo
respiri in seno
sereno il cor.
And after the storm,
lulled by tranquillity
may our hearts
beat calmly once again.
Andrea Leone Tottola
interval 20 minutes
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Saverio Mercadante (1795–1870)
La vestale
Prayer: Se fino al cielo ascendere
Giunia
Se fino al cielo ascendere
può d’un’amica il pianto,
o Dea, raccogli Erminia
all’ombra del tuo manto!
If the tears of a friend
can ascend to the heavens,
O Goddess, receive Erminia
under your protecting mantle!
Into that broken heart
may your favour descend!
Let it no longer be shaken
by affections unworthy of you …
May these tears not flow
unrewarded by grace.
Texts
In quel trafitto core
discenda il tuo favore!
Più non lo scuota un palpito
che indegno sia di te …
Non scorran queste lagrime
senza ottener mercé.
Salvadore Cammarano
Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848)
Elisabetta al castello di Kenilworth
Aria: Par che mi dica ancora
Amelia
Par che me dica ancora
‘Io ti amerò costante!’
Quanto quest’alma amante
era felice allor!
I giorni miei ridenti
come cangiò un istante!
Affanni e non contenti
opprimono il mio cor!
Fuggì l’immagine,
tanto gradita,
che di letizia
colmò mia vita.
Fra crudi palpiti
d’immense pene
mi resta a piangere
nel mio dolor!
Mi resta a piangere
nel duolo ognor.
Par che me dica ancora
‘Io ti amerò costante!’
Quanto allor ero felice!
Ah, ingrato!
I seem to hear him say again,
‘I will always be true!’
How happy this loving heart
was then!
How in a moment
my happiness has fled!
Cares, not joys,
now oppress my heart.
The lovely dream
vanished
that had filled my life
with joy.
Beset with cruel pangs
of immeasurable pain,
all I can do is weep
in my misery!
All I can do is weep
in my ceaseless misery.
I seem to hear him say again,
‘I will always be true!’
How happy I was then!
Ah, thankless man!
Andrea Leone Tottola
Final scene
Saffo
L’ama ognor qual io l’amai …
più, volendo, no’l potresti …
Quelle gioie amor v’appresti,
che il destino a me negò.
Io morrò … svanisce omai
ogni speme in questo seno …
Io morrò, ché un dio nemmeno
la mia fiamma estinguer può.
Always love him as I loved him;
you could not love him more …
May love confer those joys upon you
that destiny denied me.
I shall die … all hope has vanished
forever from my breast …
I shall die, for not even a god
can quench my passion.
Addio!
Farewell!
Salvadore Cammarano
Translations by Avril Bardoni
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Giovanni Pacini
Saffo
About the
performers
Pari Dukovic
Aspen, in addition to appearing at the 2013
Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert
Hall.
Joyce DiDonato
Joyce DiDonato mezzo-soprano
Winner of the 2012 Grammy Award for Best
Classical Vocal Solo, Kansas-born Joyce
DiDonato captivates audiences and critics
alike across the globe, and has been described
as ‘perhaps the most potent female singer of
her generation’ by The New Yorker. She has
garnered considerable acclaim both as a
performer and a fierce advocate for the arts,
gaining international prominence in operas by
Rossini, Handel and Mozart, as well as through
her wide-ranging, award-winning discography.
Her signature parts include the bel canto roles
of Rossini.
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Much in demand in the concert hall and as
a recitalist, she holds residencies this season
at New York’s Carnegie Hall and here at the
Barbican Centre. Recently she completed an
acclaimed recital tour of South America, and
has appeared in concert and recital in Berlin,
Vienna, Milan, Toulouse, Mexico City and
In the opera house she appeared last season
as Cendrillon at the Liceu, Barcelona; Sesto
(La clemenza di Tito) at the Lyric Opera,
Chicago; Angelina (La Cenerentola) at the
Metropolitan Opera; and took the title-role in
Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda at the Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden. Highlights this season
include Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi) in her
native Kansas City; Elena (La donna del lago)
at the Metropolitan Opera; Maria Stuarda
in Barcelona; the title-role in Alcina with The
English Concert here at the Barbican; and
Marguerite (La damnation de Faust) with the
Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle.
She is an exclusive recording artist with Erato/
Warner Classics and her most recent recording,
Stella di Napoli, explores the repertoire she
sings this evening. Her Grammy-Awardwinning recording Diva Divo comprises arias
by male and female characters, celebrating
the rich dramatic world of the mezzo-soprano.
The following recording, Drama Queens, was
equally well received, both on disc and on
several international tours. A retrospective of
her first 10 years of recordings entitled ReJoyce!
was released last year.
Other honours include Gramophone‘s Artist
of the Year and Recital of the Year awards,
a German ECHO Klassik Award as Female
Singer of the Year, and an induction into the
Gramophone Hall of Fame.
About the performers
Festante, Recreation-Grosses Orchester in
Graz, Attersee-Akademie Orchestra, ensemble
Resonanz, European Union Baroque Orchestra
(EUBO), Il Complesso Barocco and the Helsinki
Baroque Orchestra, of which he was the
associate conductor between 2008 and 2011.
Julien Mignot
In 2010 he worked as assistant conductor,
concertmaster, curator and editor of the critical
edition of Bellini’s Norma with Cecilia Bartoli
and Thomas Hengelbrock. In collaboration
with Maurizio Biondi he will publish the critical
edition of Norma for Bärenreiter this year.
Riccardo Minasi
Riccardo Minasi was born in Rome in 1978.
He has performed both as a soloist and as
concertmaster with ensembles including Jordi
Savall’s Le Concert des Nations, Accademia
Bizantina, Concerto Italiano, Il Giardino
Armonico, Al Ayre Español, Orchestra
dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
and Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid. He has
also worked with Concerto Vocale, Ensemble
415, Luca Pianca, Viktoria Mullova, Albrecht
Mayer, Christophe Coin and Reinhard Goebel.
As a conductor he has directed the Orchestra
and Choir of the Opéra National de Lyon,
Potsdam Kammerakademie, Zurich Chamber
Orchestra, Balthasar Neumann Ensemble,
Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, L’Arpa
He has also been conductor of Il Pomo
d’Oro since its inception in 2012, with a full
calendar of performances and a number of
acclaimed recordings. From 2004 to 2010
he was professor of chamber music at the
Conservatorio V. Bellini of Palermo. He has
also given masterclasses and lectures in
historical performance practice at the Juilliard
School in New York, the Longy School of Music
in Cambridge (USA), Sibelius Academy in
Helsinki, Chinese Culture University of Taipei,
Sydney Conservatory, Kuks Festival in the Czech
Republic and at Zurich Opera House.
Riccardo Minasi’s recording of Biber’s Rosary
Sonatas was shortlisted at the 2009 MIDEM
Awards. Next season he conducts Il matrimonio
segreto at the Zurich Opera House, Carmen at
the Opéra National de Lyon, and tours works
by Vinci and Handel with Il Pomo d’Oro.
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Riccardo Minasi conductor
Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon
The Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon was
founded in 1983 and its first Principal
Conductor was Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
He was succeeded by Kent Nagano, Louis
Langrée and Iván Fischer. Since 2003 it has
performed under such eminent conductors as
William Christie, Leopold Hager, Emmanuel
Krivine, Kirill Petrenko, Lothar Koenigs, Gerard
Korsten, Evelino Pidò, Bernhard Kontarsky and
Sebastian Weigle. In September 2008 Kazushi
Ono became its permanent conductor.
Joyce DiDonato under Kazushi Ono and DVDs
of Lehár’s The Merry Widow and Offenbach’s
La vie Parisienne. Many recordings have been
critically acclaimed and won national as
well as international prizes, notably Bellini’s
La sonnambula, conducted by Evelino Pidò,
with Natalie Dessay.
The orchestra is regularly invited to perform
throughout France and abroad and has
appeared at the Edinburgh, Athens and
Aix-en-Provence festivals, in Amsterdam
It has made more than 70 recordings, recent
(Saariaho’s Émilie), and in Paris at the Théâtre
additions including the violin concertos of
des Champs-Élysées and the Opéra-Comique,
Dutilleux and Rafaël D’Haene with Iossif Ivanov as well as touring Japan under Kazushi Ono.
conducted by Kazushi Ono, Divo, Diva with
Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon
Violin 1
Kazimierz Olechowski
Laurence Ketels
Dufour
Camille Bereau
Lia Snitkovsky
Fabien Brunon
Alex Diep
Calin Chis
Maria Estournet
Anne Vaysse Schreiber
Florence Carret
Tristan Liehr
Agnès Kosza
8
Violin 2
Karol Miczka
Frédéric Bardon
Frédérique Lonca
Sophie Moissette
Kuentz
Vassil Deltchev
Haruyo Nagao
Dominique Delbart
Weibel
Céline Lagoutière
Charles Castellon
Camille Joubert
Viola
Daniel Formentelli
Natalia Tolstaia
Milchtein
Donald O’Neil
Henrik Kring
Pascal Prevost
Nagamasa Takami
Marie Lèbre
Isabelle Pierre
Cello
Ewa Miecznikowska
Valériane Dubois
Alice Bourgouin
Henri Martinot
Jean Marc Weibel
Ludovic Le Touze
Michaël Bialobroda
Double Bass
Jorgen Skadhauge
Richard Lasnet
François Montmayeur
Rémi Magnan
Eugénio Romano
Flute
Seiya Ueno
Catherine Puertolas
Gilles Cottin
Trumpet
Jocelyn Mathevet
Pascal Savignon
Oboe
Frédéric Tardy
Jacek Piwkowski
Trombone
Eric Le Chartier
Gilles Lallement
Maxence Moercant
Clarinet
Jean Michel Bertelli
Sandrine Pastor
Tuba
Williman-Andrés
Arévalo Peña
Bassoon
Carlo Colombo
Nicolas Cardoze
Timpani
Olivier Ducatel
Horn
Jean-Philippe
Cochenet
Alessandro Viotti
Anne Boussard
Pierre-Alain Gauthier
Percussion
Christophe Roldan
Milena Duflo
Harp
Sophie Bellanger